Okay, since I don't remember where I left off before the 'Worx went down, I'll be going back a ways to see if I can get a more consistent account of what I've been doing. The buildings are up, the minions are hired and production has commenced. So without further ado, we'll start out the Opening Day Tour....
I'll start way back with this first update I posted on another Forums back in July. I'm not sure if anyone saw it but here it is...
I got the decals on the C-118. Everything went on well surprisingly. Too well as I ran into another major issue after re-coating the model with a clearcoat to seal the decals:
These are the pre-clearcoat shots. After spraying the second clearcoat to seal these, the silver on the wings crackled. I'm working on fixing that now....
I also added decals to the F/A-18 Hornet that has been sitting on the bench forever. This is another of my Modeling New Year's Resolution builds:
Some of the decals broke up, but I was able to fix them adequately. Later I shot this with the same clearcoat as the C-118 to no ill effect. Go figure. Later, I added the landing gear and gear doors to this:
After this dried sufficiently, I added the white paint to the interior of the gear bays as well as the gear. I then glued on the wheels and added the underwing pylons:
She's almost done (knock on wood!); all I need to do now is shoot a dullcoat; remove the masking and then add underwing stores:
Man this will feel good to finally get finished!
Speaking of almost finished; I also added the decals to the A-37A Dragonfly:
I later added the (already painted) stubby landing gear, gear doors and wheels to this model:
Now this one is also almost finished. She just needs a dullcoat, mask removal and underwing stores as well:
This will be the first ever Dragonfly I ever built when it's done. Now to go find some underwing stores for this....
My final aircraft for the day was the old skool Airfix Jetstream I had started some time ago. I pulled this out and painted the interior and the pilots:
I later added the rest of the interior and added the fuselage doors to this:
I need to finish painting this interior, but I couldn't resist dry-fitting everything together to see how it is going to look:
This will be interesting. I still have to paint it like the C-118...
Moving on to my armor, I didn't get much done here. I did pull out the Type 89 Late and tried to get it caught up to the Type 89 Early. That meant tackling those tiny roadwheels again; all 32 of them, plus the sprockets:
Later I added the upper sponsons and the fenders to this:
I then looked at the Type 89 Early and saw that it also needed the upper sponsons and fenders and the exhaust pipe; along with some other details, so on they went:
I went back to the Type 89 Late and brought it up to the same level with the exhaust pipe and added details. I also added the rear ditching tail. I tried to do the same to the Early, but I lost one of the skid pieces for the unditching tail on the Early. I hope to find it soon so I can complete the early too. Meanwhile, the Type 89 Late is ready for paint:
Just for fun, here's a shot of the two of them side by side; showing the differences between them. The Exacto blade shows the relative size of these two tanks too:
Beyond that, I didn't do too much except to start a couple of the new Aerosans I got. The first small one was fairly easy to assemble so far but there are some gaps to fill:
Later I got most of the assembly of the main body done and started on the engine:
While that was drying, I started the larger one, getting it this far before I had to stop for the day:
Moving forward a couple weeks, here is what happened...
Once I sanded the cracks out of my C-118 wings; I was preparing to re-paint the wings by masking off the fuselage. Since I had already shot a couple coats of clear over this; I decided to use frisket film. The frisket film shifted a bit during application and so I pulled it up slightly to re-position it in place and this happened:
This plane darn near impacted the wall with the velocity of an unladen African swallow!
I controlled myself though and set it aside....gently. My friend Steve picked up another kit of this same plane at the Nationals for me so I'll be able to replace that decal. Then I'll be shooting TEN coats of clear over them to be sure! (Note: kit has since arrived, haven't opened it yet for the decals, hopefully soon)
Moving on, I also dealt with the decals on my Jetstream. Here they are after I applied a coat of Liquid Decal Film over them. They have been sitting in my window for a couple weeks now to bleach out:
(Note: Still waiting, they were quite yellow!)
Moving on, there is a One True Scale Group Build on another Forums so I submitted this model for it. This is Dragon's LCM-3 that I started when I was bored and had nothing else to work on due to wet glue or paint:
I started with the cockpit(I've since been informed this is the pilot house). For the life of me I could not get that assembly to line up. This was the best looking job I had managed to do:
I then moved on to the front ramp, adding the hinge parts to the bottom:
Of course, that meant that I now had to finish adding the bars on top:
That is all ready for installation now. Man, I expected this model to fit better, but it has been a mass of ill-fitting parts and unclear positioning!
Moving on I added the top deck to the lower hull and that is as far as this got to date:
From here, I pulled out my Borax Wagon Train and finished the dark wash on the wagons; removed the masking on the wheels and suspension; and re-assembled everything. I also completed the water wagon which had never been assembled to the chassis. This is now ready for some dusting and dirtying:
I also have to paint up the 20 mules for this so I can get everything assembled. Now where did I put that base for this......
Finally on my armor; I did a few minor things. The Schturmtiger got almost all the P/E it needs as well as the wheels installed; I just have to add the P/E crane parts and then find the driver's vision slot and I'll be able to paint this:
You can see one of the side fenders disappeared so this is going to be missing a fender....
I also lost the P/E fret for my Sherman so I improvised the fenders with some sheet styrene. I do still need to sand it smooth, but the fenders are now closed off on this as they are supposed to be:
Just another test fit to make sure my new fender additions won't conflict with the mine roller mount:
Finally, I shot a gloss clear over the Vauxhall car to shine it up. Here it is all test fit together now. I had to rob a steering wheel from one of my Aerosans since the Vauxhall one disappeared:
Disregard that piece of lint on this; that was easily removed once I saw it later. Now all I need to do next is start on the interior detail painting. I also found the clear parts for this so I'll be able to finish it now!
Moving on to a few weeks later...
I'll start (again!) with my Borax wagons. They are essentially done except for some dusting and weathering so I moved on to my mules. I started with ten of them; half of the total. Here they are after my basecoat of brown:
My apologies for the messy bench in the background; I know some of you hate to see that. I didn't have anywhere else to shoot these pics. I hope to move forward on these someday soon.
Next up I shot some clearcoats on my C-118, and my USAAF supply set, along with a couple other models. Nothing to see as it was a clear coat so nothing looked any different so no additional pics.
One model I did shoot a pic of that was clearcoated is my Merkava IV. I had also given it a wash and painted some of the details so here it is showing the latest progress:
I also did some of the details on my Roden Vauxhall car, adding the gold trim and painting the radiator grill, among other things:
While I had the airbrush out, I also shot an OD basecoat on my Sherman with the minerollers:
There is still a bit of touchup needed for that as I see under the hull sides....
After that I took a break and got some of the landing craft assembled. I completed the interior part here:
And then test-fit it inside to see how it fit. Surprisingly, this fit fine:
Meanwhile, I tried to get the forward door to fit on that but found out I had glued something wrong on it so I had to repair that. Maybe next time I'll be able to get it to fit right.
Finally, I shot a coat of flat black to the underside and select areas on the space shuttle. Man that felt good making some progress on that for once:
And a few weeks after that, I got all this done....
The F-102 I'm doing for the Charlie Don't Surf Campaign on another Forums was first masked off on the bottom:
Next I shot the first of the three camouflage colors on it:
This is still drying, I may get the other masking and colors on it this week.
After that, I started a couple simple models from Accurate Miniatures of a P-40 and P-51B for a Monogram Mafia Group Build on another boards. These are simple models originally from Monogram; I know because there was engraving on the inside of the wings saying Copyright Monogram and the year!
Here is the P-40 started; I had painted the interior and added the pilot (since there was no cockpit at all!) and then I closed it up and added the canopy:
After that I moved on to the propeller and cowl and assembled all that while the rest was drying:
Then I assembled the wings to have all the sub assemblies done and ready to assemble when everything was dry:
Since I could go no further on this and since I'm supposed to do two Monogram models for the Group Build in order to be 'Made' in the Monogram Mafia; I also pulled out the P-51B that came in the same kit. I got the interior painted and the fuselage all closed up before I remembered to shoot a pic:
Later on I assembled the wings and dry-fit them to the model:
Finally, I shot another dullcoat and then removed the canopy masking from my F/A-18 Hornet:
Now all I have to do is wait for my replacement burner cans, clean the canopy and mount the ordinance and this bird will finally be done.
(Burner cans have just arrived, I'll be able to move on this soon.)
Moving on, I was able to get the Sherman more fully painted:
Later on I decided to shoot some white on my two Aerosans and move forward on them for once. Here's the smaller one shot first:
The larger one was shot next. I didn't put the roof on it; I may leave it off:
Once these were dry, I painted a basecoat of Oily Black on the engines and painted the seats in the interiors. I also tried to paint the dials on the instrument panel of the smaller Aerosan:
There's gonna need to be some touch-up, but these are finally moving forward.
Moving on to some of my more eclectic subjects, I decided to experiment with some weathering and panel line pinwashing on the bottom of the Star Destroyer. I'm not that happy with the results under here; except in the shuttle bays:
I think I'm going to do that over.
I also did the same deep wash on the face of the command module. I'm well pleased with how this looks so far:
I'll be dry-brushing with a lighter grey over this later on.
I did the same on the back of the module and on the neck as well. It looks well enough so far:
Finally, I managed to get a lot done on my 20-mule team Borax wagon train. Here is the first wagon dusted up and weathered a bit:
This pic doesn't show the dust to good effect here. I over-edited it. This second wagon shows the dusting more accurately the way it looks in person:
Then there is the water wagon all dusted up:
Just for fun I tried to get a good shot of the whole train together sans mules:
This doesn't look like what I see when I look at it so I tried it with the flash. I think this looks much better; it really shows the dirt to better effect:
Now of course, I gotta do the mules. I had already showed where I painted the first ten mules. This time I broke out the Sotar airbrush and focused on getting the noses and hocks all painted in the white-ish color that these mules have on those places:
After this I can paint the hooves, blinders and harnesses and then move on to the final ten mules. I'm beginning to see the end of the trail for this model....
And that brings us all up to the present. At least four of those models got finished; I'll try to post the finished pics in the proper Forums later on. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoyed the tour of my newest facilities and of all my latest projects that have been under construction over the past three months.
Thanks all for looking in, comments are welcome.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/54858361/c42ac6a0c2aaee69c79955d1d32c54b4_large.0.0.jpeg)
